Air Force secretary seeks base closures

Published: Sunday, February 21, 1999

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Reductions in the number of Air Force bases have not kept pace with drops in personnel since the end of the Cold War so more bases need to be closed, says the acting secretary of the Air Force.

But F. Whitten Peters said Friday he could not say whether any of New Mexico's three bases would be in jeopardy if Congress gives its approval for additional closures.

"You can't prejudge New Mexico any more than you can prejudge anybody else," he said during a news conference at Kirtland Air Force Base.

He was at Kirtland prior to heading to Cannon Air Force Base at Clovis and after visiting Holloman Air Force Base at Alamogordo.

Peters said the Air Force agrees with the Pentagon that Congress should authorize two more rounds of base closures, one in 2001 and another in either 2003 or 2005.

More base closures are needed to save money and streamline Air Force operations so that limited budgets can be focused on maintaining peak readiness of fighting units, he said.

While personnel levels have dropped 40 percent since the end of the Cold War, the number of bases has dropped only 20 percent, Peters said.

He said that creates a burden for the service to keep extra bases open and running.

"It takes a minimum of 1,000 people just to turn on the lights in the morning at these bases," he said.

Two bills now pending before Congress would create an independent commission to oversee the process of any closures. Peters promised "an absolutely fair process" if the Defense Department is asked to create a list come up with a list of proposed closures.